Recent finished projects

 

My crochet addiction is still pretty full-on and most weekends I'll try to polish off a few pieces I've either been working on in the week, or will just do an Amigurumi pattern from start to finish if I've got a couple of hours spare. 

First up, why not Zoidberg! This cute little version of Dr Zoidberg from Futurama caught my eye as the pattern was beautifully written and very easy to follow. Sadly I didn't have any of the right colour yarn but it still turned out fairly OK (even his little blobby sandals). As with most patterns I work from, you can find Zoidy on Ravelry here - by the very talented crocheter Akabeko Botan: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/why-not-zoidberg-2

The hardest part of the pattern is probably the sewing up (which I'm hopeless at) but because it's mostly 4 spheres with a couple of slightly longer teardrop-shaped arms, it's a breeze for a beginner (even his face tentacles are nice easy chains with DC stitches in). Unusually for me this is the first time I've followed a UK crochet pattern but managed to do OK. 

For this week's #CrochetMoor #Drawmoor challenge on Twitter, the subject was a ballet dancing bear. Something that lends itself well to a bit of Crochet!

This was a lot of fun to work on, mostly worked up from a pattern for a long legged bear as I wanted something that looked cute but had longer ballet-dancer-style limbs. 

This was the first pattern where I'd managed to work out how to 'crochet right side out' (see my other blog post about this). so I was eager to try out the new technique with something that was fairly complex. There's a LOT of color changing in this as well, lots of stripes and colour changes between limbs and in the stripes of the tutu and the top. 

Again, the toughest part of this was probably getting consistency in the width of the limbs when stuffing (one of these days I'll learn not to overstuff) and sewing up (again something I really want to get a LOT better at, but practice makes perfect). 

When I finished her off, I realised that she could hold a pose while sitting / stretching / doing the splits but couldn't stand on her own

two feet at all! Hence the addition of an artist's maquette and some rather stealthy propping under a nest of tables. 

I really struggled with the head on this one. Dark brown yarn is a nightmare to crochet (really hard to see the stitch holes in darker colours when you're working in the round) and I felt like the row count on the head was going on, and on, and on (at one point, 14 rows in the round, I thought her head would be the size of a hot air balloon!) but it all came together in the end and I'm fairly happy with it. 

It's also one of the first things I've ever tried to darn eyes on without using safety eyes. 

The model was polished off with some tiny crocheted pumps, and a tutu skirt before the ears and muzzle were added. 

One of these days I'm going to run out of luck with the #Drawmoor challenges and find a really tough one I just won't be able to do!

In the meantime though this was a fun thing to work on and it looks like the sort of toy a kid might actually love, rather than something that might traumatise them forever !

Elsewhere I've been crocheting giant donuts. This was a great exercise in working in the round in a really different way, as you're actually working up a base chain into a torus (donut) shape rather than working from a "Magic Circle". 

It's also a handy thing to make when you want to use up tiny scraps of yarn - the coloured 'sprinkles' on top are just added to every time I get an odd scrap of yarn. 

There's something very satisfying about making food-based Amigurumi, and this was the first donut pattern I'd managed to get 'working' for me - and another good test of working 'right side out' as you stuff this thing as you go (something that you really can't do if you work wrong side out, you can't glue the stuffing to the outside, after all!)

One of the biggest problems with Crochet is that the more you work, the more your house fills up with all manner of weird and wonderful things. Normally I would be donating these either to work colleagues with kids, or to charity shops, but in COVID times. neither are possible so I'm hoarding them until I can get a big sack of them together to take into a nearby good cause. 

I think I'd get a massive kick out of knowing that maybe one or more of these could end up as some little kid's new favourite toy but (more realistically) probably not. I don't think my stuff's quite that good yet. 

My last set of 'makes' was more from the #Drawmoor prompts, this time for a gang of man eating plants. 

Mostly really simple little shapes and patterns. The Piranha plant from Super Mario Kart / Mario games was really good fun to make, a great pattern with some complicated bits (have you ever tried to crochet a stem of a plant so that the plant stands up? Not as easy as it sounds). 

There's also one of those massive wiggler cactus dudes from Mario Kart / SMB games, and a few weird little things made out of old scraps or crochet shapes. 

At the moment I'm working on a couple of pieces for my brother's upcoming birthday (one of which is actually turning out really nicely) and my crochet addition continues unabated!

Have fun hooking!